When the mower doesn’t mow.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

This is a picture of undeserved grace. I didn’t ask for it but it was given.

You see, this field is my responsibility to mow and I have wrestled with an old rider mower for two seasons. It needed a new starter, simple enough. Then it needed a magneto – that’s right, a magneto. I didn’t know that was a thing outside the X-Men movies, but it is. This year it seemed to need a new carburetor.

Even with all of these new parts, there was an intermittent issue with it. I was of no more use, I could see nothing to troubleshoot and declared the mower dead at 6:00 pm last Saturday. The mower was of no use, and I had this field that would now need to be mowed with the walk behind mower. It would work, but would likely take most of a day to complete.

Then a neighbor came over. My wife had asked his wife if I could borrow his mower. I would not make such a request. Even though I would be happy to loan something to a neighbor, it is very difficult for me to be the recipient. So there he was. He diagnosed the problem with my mower, got it running and then came the next morning and mowed my field with his own mower. This is difficult for me. I’m without words.

“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”
Romans 5:6-8 The Message

If it is so difficult for me to accept this little bit of grace from my neighbor, then how little must I understand God’s grace that I think I can accept Him so nonchalantly? But that is how He offers Himself, fully and without expectation. When I think about the depth of His gift it is difficult for me. I’m without words.

Copyright photo and text David Brukiewa